Fairytale Forest Soup

Sometimes, it's just one of those grey days. It may begin with a beautiful, sunshiny morning, and as the day wears on, it becomes progressively more and more overcast and grey. Today was one such day, and such a day calls for hot soup, cello concertos, and classic Fairy Tales.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium-sized potatoes, cut into medium-sized chunks
• 2 long onions, peeled and grated
• 5-6 baby bella mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
• 1/2 of a medium onion, diced
• 1/2 cup of lentils, washed and picked over
• 1/2 cup of buckwheat groats, washed and picked over
• 3 cups of chicken stock
• 3 cups of water
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 good pinch of Vegeta
• 1 bay leaf
• a sprinkling of ground pepper
• a dash of nutmeg

Directions:

1. Sauté the mushrooms, onion, and carrots in the bottom of your soup pot with 1 tsp of olive oil until the onions and carrots are slightly softened.
2. Add the potatoes, the chicken broth and water, lentils and groats.
3. Season with salt, Vegeta, pepper, nutmeg and bay leaf.
4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 min, or until the potatoes are easily broken apart with a wooden spoon and the lentils and groats are soft to the bite.
5. Adjust seasonings and serve with a dollop of sour cream and toast, rubbed with garlic.

Potato chunks, chillin' in their water bath :)

All chopped up

Give them a good stir...

Add the stock (and water!)

And, finally, your potatoes,

lentils, and

groats!

Fairytale Forest Soup :)

Try before serving! You may need to adjust the seasonings.

This soup is best prepared while listening to Mstislav Rostropovich and other masters play classical cello, preferably for free on Pandora Radio, and best eaten after reading or watching classic Russian Fairy Tales :)